Monday, April 22, 2024 | (2024)

BEQtk (Matthew)

LAT1:56 (Stella)

NYT4ish (Sophia)

WSJ4:20 (Jim)

David J. Kahn’s New York Times crossword — Sophia’s write-up

Happy Monday all! There’s a lot going on in today’s puzzle. For starters, there’s an 8 part word ladder going from COAL to WIND energy: COAL –> COOL –> WOOL –> WOOD –> FOOD –> FOND –> FIND –> WIND. Besides this, we have the central answer GLOBAL WARMING, flanked by GREEN POWER and FOSSIL FUEL.

In terms of word ladder puzzles, this is a pretty good one. I like how the theme includes the word ladder but also some other long answers, and I like how the word ladder clues relate to the climate change theme as well. That being said, it took me forever to get [*Energy source whose production contributes to 36-Across] for FOOD, because I was still thinking of the WOOD type of energy source. It’s very clever to have a clue that works for both of those middle answers, almost like a Schrodinger puzzle.

I don’t have much to say about the fill in the rest of the puzzle other than to say I wish it was a bit more interesting? But given the amount of thematic material I guess I should be happy it’s clean, at least (although I could definitely do without WINOS). DAWNED ON and LOUSES UP are good-not-great downs, but I loved the references to Sheryl LEE Ralph and ADAM Lambert. My favorite clues in the puzzle were [Leave no leaves, say] for RAKE and [Its name translates as “waterless place” in Mongolian] for GOBI, which is a new fact for me.

Alex Eaton-Salners’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Sound Check”—Jim’s review

Theme answers are familiar phrases whose first words are hom*ophones.

• 20a. [Bartlett, Bosc and Anjou] PEAR VARIETIES.
• 33a. [Reduce] PARE DOWN.
• 38a. [France’s equivalent of Santa Claus] PÈRE NOËL.
• 49a. [Reading aid] PAIR OF GLASSES.

I’m so used to seeing Alex’s byline with tricky themes that it took me by surprise to look down and see his name after I completed my solve. But of course there’s no reason a veteran constructor of sneaky themes can’t produce a straightforward grid suitable for a Monday. This one’s about as straight as they come, so it would be a good one to hand to a newbie solver.

If I had to pick a couple of nits it would be that PEAR VARIETIES isn’t an in-the-language phrase like the others, and that the title is too generic. This is a tough type of theme to find a title for, but what do you think of “Pār Four”?

If the theme didn’t do it for you, perhaps you enjoyed the fill. Lots of highlights like “WHERE ELSE?”, CROSS-COURT, CHERRY-PICK, DRESS SHOP, JAKARTA, DAHLIA, “NO HINTS“, and TOOLBAR. New to me is “ON GOD” [Slangy “I swear!”]. But I know it’s legit because it even has an abbreviation: ONG.

Clue of note: 4d. [In what other place?]. “WHERE ELSE?” Hmm. I’m feeling like there should be quotation marks in the clue. The question mark by itself is usually an indicator of wordplay, but these phrases are synonymous.

Straightforward theme, but an enjoyable grid. 3.5 stars.

Agnes Davidson & Zhouqin Burnikel’s Los Angeles Times crossword — Stella’s write-up

The revealer at 64A [Newspaper’s attention-getters, and what both words in 17-, 25-, 38- and 54-Across can do], isHEADLINES, meaning that theHEAD, or first word, of each theme answer is a type ofLINE:

• 17A [Improper etiquette at a social gathering] is aPARTY FOUL, leading toPARTY LINE.
• 25A [Aristocrat] isBLUE BLOOD, leading toBLUE LINE. In ChicagoBLUE LINE means a train you can take to O’Hare; in NYC it’s the A/C/E trains.
• 38A [Romantic outing] isDATE NIGHT, leading toDATELINE.
• 54A [Biography] isLIFE STORY, leading toLIFELINE.

The grid is unusual for a Monday: It’s not unusual in that there are a lot of 3- and 4-letter words, but it is in that there are quite a lot of 7s. It’s fortunate that the 7s are all Downs, since 7-letter Across entries when all the theme entries are 9 letters long could be confusing.

Sarah Butkovic’s Universal crossword, “Drink Up” — pannonica’s write-up

We have some circled triplets today. The revealer explains it.

• 56a^R [Lively and cheerful state, or a theme hint] HIGH SPIRITS.
• 20a. [*They don’t have any words] INST{RUM}ENTALS.
  (14d [Big painting on a wall] {MUR}AL.)
• 37a. [*His songs were in “Top Gun” and “Footloose”] KENNY LOG{GIN}S.
  (25d [Cold rice topped with wasabi and raw fish] {NIG}IRI.)
• 42a. [*They revise scripts] STO{RY E}DITORS.
  (36d [Jane of British lit] {EYR}E.)

All three-letter liquors. I lift a glass.

• 3d [Rover’s home?] MARS. Question mark helps here, not just to disabuse the solver from doggy thoughts, but also because MARS isn’t really the ‘home’ of those devices.
• 4d [Chris of “Jurassic World”] PRATT, he of recent historic house-demolishing news.
• 28d [Superior groups] ELITES. Not necessarily an indication of quality; sometimes it’s merely relative status.
• 43a [Strong opponent of change] DIE HARD. That’s not how I’ve heard it used, though I can see how it could be parsed that way. For the record, m-w defines it thus: 1: to be long in dying such rumors die hard 2: to continue resistance against hopeless odds
  that kind of determination dies hard § Perhaps the clue is describing another form? A compound word rather than a short phrase? That isn’t in m-w, but may very well be in another dictionary. Yes, I see it in Wiktionary, although I don’t know whence their definition.
• 53d [Fairy-tale monsters] OGRES. 55d [Fair-tale monster] TROLL.
• 22a [Roofing gunk] TAR, followed by its emordnilap, 23a [Tattletale] RAT.
• 54a [Key also known as Option] ALT. 67a [Key also known as return] ENTER.

Sid Sivakumar’s New Yorker crossword, “A Foodie Puzzle: Jam-packed”–Amy’s recap

No shade to Sid, but I really wish the New Yorker decision-makers had taken into account how many themed puzzles they had on hand before they shrank their puzzle offerings. I live for tough themelesses! And they keep running themed puzzles on hard-themelesses Monday.

The theme revealer is FRUIT-FILLED, and the theme entries are made by inserting a fruit inside the clued word to yield a legit phrase:

• 16a. [*Societal customs and traditions], CULT FIGURES. That’s CULTURES with some FIG jam.
• 20a. [*Skin-care product that might be applied with a cotton pad], TOP EARNER. A PEAR in your bottle of TONER.
• 30a. [*Court legend Arthur], ASH PLUME. Arthur Ashe, plum.
• 42a. [*Staff look-alike], ROMAN GOD. Mango in rod.
• 54a. [*Buzz off?], SHED A TEAR. A date inside shear.

Solid theme.

Desi morsel: [Hub for Mughlai cuisine], AGRA. One of the mughals built the Taj Mahal, of course. Here’s a brief look at this North Indian cuisine.

Fave fill: GOOD FAT, CHEESE LOG, HOLY GHOST. “NO, SILLY” feels a little contrived to me, and I continue my crusade against the entry “I RULE,” which isn’t really a thing anyone says unless they’re a jackass, am I right?

3.5 stars from me.